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Roses - Day 10: 21 Days of Garden Fatigue

Very few gardens would be devoid of at least one rose. They are adaptable in any garden and come in so many different colours that they will fit any colour scheme.

But they are also very susceptible to a few problems that gardeners can sometimes struggle to deal with. Read on if you're having problems with your roses....

  • Aphids these are softbodied insects that will latch onto your plant (not just roses) and will continue to feed off them until they are removed or they run out of a food source. With roses they aren't detrimental apart from severely distorting your blooms. There are a couple of ways of removing these pests;
    1. White oil - this is a detergent based spray that kills aphids very easily. However, you need to apply it when you are guaranteed at least 6 hours of sunshine. If you want to make your own rather than buy a commercial variety click here - [SORRY, LINK SINCE REMOVED].
    2. Ladybirds - are aphids natural predator however their maturity rate is much less than aphids and so will take longer for them to become active in removing the aphids from your bushes. One way to overcome this is to by the ladybirds from somewhere like Bug Central.
    3. Spraying with water - this is a very effective way to deal with these little creatures. I had to perform this on my nagami cumquat last week and it cleaned every aphid off and they haven't returned.
  • Blackspot is a fungus which will affect the leaves of your rose bush leaving them with black spots. There are chemical dusts available to kill the fungus but they won't repair damaged leaves. The best way to deal with these is to remove all the affected leaves and either burn them or discard in the rubbish. Don't put them in your compost heap!
  • Pruning is a very important job where roses are concerned. It's easy to do so long as some good techniques are employed. The best time to prune is toward the end of winter just before the plant comes out of its dormant cycle. Remove any dead wood and then prune to shape.
  • Suckers - In Western Australia all our roses are grafted onto Fortuniana root stock because this is the hardiest way to grow roses here. If your roses are grafted onto root stock you may notice suckers or side shoots growing below the graft. These need to be removed so that the bus does't revert back to it's original stock.




Posted by Stuart on January 12, 2006 5:07 AM | | Check to Subscribe to this Comment:


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